12 LAMARCK, HIS LIFE AND WORK 
of his village, he rode across the country to join the 
French army, then campaigning in Germany. 
He carried with him a letter of recommendation 
from one of his neighbors on an adjoining estate in 
the ‘country, Madame (de Lanveth, tov M.de ‘Wastic, 
colonel of the regiment of Beaujolais.* 
““We can imagine [says Cuvier] the feelings of this 
officer on thus finding himself hampered with a boy 
whose puny appearance made him seem still younger 
than he was. However, he sent him to his quarters, 
and then busied himself with his duties. The period 
indeed was a critical one. It was the 16th of July, 
1761. The Marshal de Broglie had just united his 
army with that of the Prince de Soubise, and the 
next day was to attack the allied army commanded 
by the Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick. At the break 
of day M. de Lastic rode along the front of his corps, 
and the first man that met his gaze was the new re- 
cruit, who, without saying anything to him, had placed 
himself in the front rank of a company of grenadiers, 
and nothing could induce him to quit his post. 
“It is a matter of history that this battle, which 
bears the name of the little village of Fissingshausen, 
between Ham and Lippstadt, in Westphalia, was lost 
by the French, and that the two generals, mutually 
accusing each other of this defeat, immediately sepa- 
rated, and abandoned the campaign. 
“ During the movement of the battle, de Lamarck’s 
company was stationed in a position exposed to the 
direct fire of the enemy’s artillery. In the confusion 
of the retreat he was forgotten. Already all the 
officers and non-commissioned officers had been 
* We are following the Eloge of Cuvier almost verbatim, also repro- 
duced in the bicgraphical notice in the Revue biographigue de la So- 
ciélé Malacologiqgue de France, said to have been prepared by J. R. 
Bourguignat. 
